DAVID's comment: These tough-ones are Archaea from the most ancient forms of first life. Perhaps life first appeared from critters like these. We know that the switch to a caustic oxygen metabolism appeared much later, and its attendant oxidation problems were also solved. Is this inventiveness built in to first life by design?

dhw: I must say I prefer “inventiveness” to a library of information and instructions, along with instructions on which instructions to choose at any given moment for the next X billion years.

I hope you finally accept that life requires a mass of information in order to function. I certainly accept that instructions for minor adaptation exist.